


We got a lot to make it work

by charlieellenstolte



Category: Firebringer - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Timeline, F/F, F/M, Slow Burn, with a few tweaks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 07:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11595378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlieellenstolte/pseuds/charlieellenstolte
Summary: "Look, Zazzy," Jemilla put both arms on Zazzalil's shoulders so that she was fully facing her. "I know we all want to have some fun but there's only so much time before the concert band comes and kicks us out so they can practice. We've got work to do." She gestured to the group to stand up and they did, a few groaning. "There's just no time for singing and dancing right now. We've got-""I don't wanna." Zazzalil cut Jemilla off and turned her back around so she was looking directly at her.





	1. We Got Work to Do

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue how the American school system works so this will be based off the New Zealand school system. Almost all the characters are in Year 13, which I'm pretty sure is Grade 12 in America.

"It's yo-gurt."

"Bullshit, it's yog-hurt!"

"Where the _fuck_ does the extra g come in?" Chorn almost shouted as she got all into Smelly Ball's face. The two often argued over the smallest thing, and today's topic was how to pronounce "Yoghurt" of all things.

Zazilil leant her head back and groaned. "If someone doesn't go over there and strangle them both, I'll do it myself."

"Blame Emberly for bringing up her lunch plans." Tiblyn shrugged from where she lay on the floor between their school bags, tying her braids into small knots. "I mean, who the fuck has time to meal prep yoghurt oatmeal for the entire week. Wouldn't it go off by Friday?"

Emberly rolled her eyes and pushed her glasses up her nose but didn't look up from her phone. "Tiblyn, yoghurt doesn't go off until at least a month, did you even take year 11 biology?"

"Nah, took Chem and physics."

"Figures." Emberly glanced over as Zazzalil slid from the chair and lay face down on the floor, her frizzy hair spread out in a halo around her head.

"My God, someone text Jemilla and tell her to get her butt over here before I commit murder," Zazzalil grumbled against the floor as Chorn and Smelly ball's argument grew louder, with Chorn standing on a chair just so she had leverage over him. It wasn't even interesting stuff, just them shouting their preferred way of pronouncing yoghurt.

"She's coming." Shwoopsie seemingly appeared in the doorway and the three of them jolted in surprise. "She's running late 'cause of a student council meeting. Ducker is gonna be here soon too. He was feeding the pigeons or something." Swhoopsie had her hair up in Spice Girls style ponytails which Zazzalil would have found hilarious if she weren't so pissed off by the constant noise from the argument.

"I dunno how she keeps up with directing our student led production _and_ doing the drums for Jazz Band _and_ being in the student council," Keeri remarked from where she leant against the classroom cupboards, eating trail mix out of a zip lock bag. "I mean, shit, most of my activities involve other people making it up for me and I'm already exhausted." She swatted Shwoopie's hand away from the bag, which earned a barely audible complaint from the other girl.

"Honestly, it's just who she is. She can take on that sorta stuff and still have time left over to, I dunno, colour code her homework or something. It's admirable." Tiblyn spoke, which distracted Keeri enough for Shwoopsie to lean in and swipe a piece of dried fruit from her bag.

Zazzalil made a small grunt of agreement and sat up so she had a full view of Chorn and Smelly Balls, who were still going at it. Jemilla really was the most organised person Zazzalil had met, and she'd lived through more than enough social studies team projects with her to prove it. Hell, she was probably the only person she knew who wore the senior uniform correctly, without pyjama pants under the long winter skirt which everyone else wore and hid from the deans that passed in the halls. She was frustratingly cute too, with shoulder length curly brown hair and eyes that practically lit up when she was happy. This all annoyed Zazzalil to no end, whose life motto was along the lines of "Just wait and let the shit sort out itself."

Zazzalil was jolted out her thoughts as Jemilla rushed into the room, threw her bag on the heap behind the group and stormed up to where Chorn and Smelly Balls were arguing.

"Enough!" She half-yelled, causing the two to snap their heads towards her. She placed her hands on both of their shoulders and sighed.

"Swhoops texted me and filled me in, have neither of you realised that the way you say it just depends on where you're from and neither of them are correct?"

There was a beat of silence as Chorn and Smelly Balls only stared at Jemilla, who was breathing heavily from supposedly running all the way to the drama block.

"I, uh, actually never thought of that." Smelly Balls started, as Chorn nodded slowly, brushing her red dyed hair out her eyes.

"Well, is it sorted out now?" Jemilla smiled patiently as Chorn kept nodding and moved in to hug Smelly Balls.

"Jemilla, the peacemaker." Shwoopsie teasingly did a wobbly bow and moved to snake her arm around Jemilla's shoulder. "I'm telling you, you'll go down in history for this."

"Yeah, yeah," Jemilla rolled her eyes, though kept smiling. "But seriously, did none of you guys think of telling them that either?" She turned to the others and asked, which lead to a chorus of "Nope"s, "Nah"s, "Not really"s and a confused "what" from the group.

"Well, you're the peacemaker here." Tiblyn grinned as she stood up and stretched. "Can't leave that job to us, it'll lead to disaster."

Jemilla dodged Tiblyn's playful punch sent her way and turned to address where Zazzalil and the rest were seated. Ducker only just snuck in, carrying the duck soft toy that his character holds throughout a majority of the play, which of course led him to become subsequently weirdly attached to it. He's just a weird guy in general. "Now that everyone's here, we can get to work learning our lines, right gang?" Jemilla beamed. This sent grumbles through the group and Zazzalil dragged her hand down her face. "Oh come on," Jemilla started again, ignoring the other's disinterest. "There's a lot of scenes I wanna work through, a lot of discoveries to be made about the play-"

Zazzalil couldn't take it anymore and leapt up. "Um, Jemilla?."

"Yeah?" Jemilla started a bit as Zazzalil wrapped an arm around her.

"We just learnt lines yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. Maybe we can just take a day off. Do some singing and dancing? Keeris super pumped to choreograph the dancing." Zazzalil gestured to where Keeri was enthusiastically nodding, oblivious to how Shwoopsie had made her way back and was now grabbing handfuls at a time of the trail mix.

Zazzalil shot Jemilla her best pleading look but only earned a sigh in response.

"Look, Zazzy," Jemilla put both arms on Zazzalil's shoulders so that she was fully facing her. "I know we all want to have some fun but there's only so much time before the concert band comes and kicks us out so they can practice. We've got work to do." She gestured to the group to stand up and they did, a few groaning. "There's just no time for singing and dancing right now. We've got-"

"I don't wanna." Zazzalil cut Jemilla off and turned her back around so she was looking directly at her.

"What, what is this?" Jemilla looked bewildered as a grin spread over Zazzalil's face. Some vaguely familiar 90s pop music started to play from where Keeri connected her phone to the portable speakers, clearly having made up her mind Zazzalil started to sway in time, bringing Jemilla with her like some private school prom with the arm length rule strictly enforced. All the others were now dancing around them, most of them doing semi choreographed moves that Zazzalil suspected was from a dance group they were in a few years ago. She snapped her attention back to Jemilla who was still standing gobsmacked and almost managed to clumsily twirl her around before Jemilla stepped back and cleared her throat reverting to her job of leader.

"Alright now listen Girls, let me reiterate. I know it's hard to work with no play, but I hope you all understand the importance of what we're doing and how this play is full of obstacles we gotta work through." She was barely audible over the music, with only a couple people managing to understand her.

"Com'on J-Mills," Zazzalil pleaded as she tried to drag her back into the centre of the room to dance again. "Look at how much fun the others are having! Don't take this away from us." She gestured to everyone else, who were still dancing. Smelly-Balls and Shwoopsie were executing an incredibly slow and offbeat Macarena whilst Keeri was attempting some kind of dirty dancing style lift with Tiblyn and a very scared looking Ducker.

"Okay, I'm not taking this away from you, I'm just," Jemilla sighed as she stalled, looking for a better wording. Zazzalil raised an eyebrow in doubt. "I'm just telling you not to do it."

"Same difference."

Jemilla scoffed. "It is not."

"Aw, come on Jemilla, you know she's just messing with ya." Emberly popped up behind the two, breaking them out of whatever stare down they were having. "She is right though, a little dancing isn't gonna kill you."

Jemilla huffed out air and drew her head back up, defeated. "Fine." Emberly whooped and tragically missed a hi five from Zazzalil which sent her into a fit of giggles.

"Only for a few minutes though. We've got heaps of stuff to work through." Jemilla added as was dragged to where the others were dancing. Before she could reach them, everyone's attention was stolen by a sharp knock at the door.

Zazzalil turned to where a small blonde year nine stuck her head out the door. “Uh, we can hear you guys from Music block and we’re trying to rehearse so could you turn it off please?” She barely finished her sentence before the music cut off with a screech of static as Shwoopsie disconnected it. The girl at the door cleared her throat and awkwardly nodded in thanks, then closed the door with a click. Shwoopsie broke the silence by snorting incredibly loudly then dissolving into a fit of coughing as everyone else cracked up.


	2. What if?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter has a bit of chat fic, but it's only for this one. I also took a lot of liberty with the names for the characters.
> 
> I did fanart of Zazzalil as well if ya wanna check that out [Here](http://gingersnapkid.tumblr.com/post/163514425698/she-says-play-it-safe-yet-she-talks-about-growth)  
> Internals: Like a test or a project that you work towards to get credits in NCEA

(18:26) **Jemilla Anderson** created the group **"2017 YEAR 13 STUDENT LED PRODUCTION"**

(18:26) **Jemilla Anderson** added **Tiblyn James** , **Emberly Garretson** , **Simon O’Malley** , **Chorn Burnett** , **Sarah Theodore** and **Harry Prewitt** to the group.

(18:28) **Sarah Theodore** : ???

(18:28) **Emberly Garretson** : what's this?

(18:29) **Tiblyn James** : someone change the names to their nicknames I'm so uncomfortable

(18:29) **Harry Prewitt** : mine too

(18:29) **Jemilla Anderson** changed **Sarah Theodore's** nickname to **"Shwoopsie"**

(18:30) **Jemilla Anderson** changed **Harry Prewitt’s** nickname to **"Duck boy"**

(18:30) **Duck boy** : it's ducker

(18:30) **Jemilla Anderson** changed **Harry Prewitt's** nickname to **"Ducker"**

(18:30) J **emilla Anderson** changed **Simon O’Malley's** nickname to **"Smelly-Balls"**

(18:31) **Ducker** : thx

(18:31) **Smelly-Balls** : rude

(18:31) **Emberly Garretson** : this isn’t new, I haven’t met a single person who doesn’t call you that.

(18:31) **Smelly-Balls** : teachers don’t

(18:31) **Emberly Garretson** : ‘tis different

(18:31) **Tiblyn James** : So what's this about

(18:33) **Jemilla Anderson** : As you all know, I'm good friends with Molag who wrote this play.

(18:33) **Jemilla Anderson** : We just talked over the phone and she revealed some important truths about the script that may have caused a few of us to

(18:34) **Jemilla Anderson** : How do I say this

(18:34) **Jemilla Anderson** : Waste a LOT of their time?

(18:35) **Tiblyn James** : wow

(18:35) **Tiblyn James** : huge slam on Emberly holy shit

(18:35) **Emberly Garretson** : shut up she's typing

(18:36) **Jemilla Anderson** : Well, no, Emberly's part is actually very important to the play.

(18:36) **Jemilla Anderson** : Turns out that the script we have was actually a joke script for, and I quote, "shits and giggles" that Molag sent to the publisher but didn't expect it to be accepted.

(18:36) **Jemilla Anderson** : Most of the script is the same as the original but there are some minor tweaks

(18:36) **Shwoopsie** : like?

(18:37) **Jemilla Anderson** : Well, first off, the duck that Harry carries around for Act one is completely unnecessary

(18:37) **Ducker** : what the fuck

(18:37) **Smelly Balls** : that actually makes a lot of sense

(18:37) **Tiblyn James** : why the fuck didn't we question it

(18:37) **Ducker** : no, this is bullshit

(18:38) **Ducker** : Jemilla

(18:38) **Ducker** : Babe

(18:39) **Jemilla Anderson** : Nope

(18:39) **Jemilla Anderson** : Molag also lied about Tiblyn’s character holding up the sky prop during Act 2 Scene 4 & 5

(18:39) **Shwoopsie** : woah

(18:39) **Emberly Garretson** : Shit

(18:40) **Tiblyn James** : What the fuck

(18:40) **Tiblyn James** : I’ve been doing it for like a month now

(18:40) **Tiblyn James** : and I NEVER get a word of thanks from anyone

(18:40) **Jemilla Anderson** : Well, first off, thank you Tiblyn

(18:40) **Smelly-Balls** : yeah thank you

(18:40) **Shwoopsie** : Thank you so much tibs

(18:41) **Tiblyn James** : my arms hurt so much honestly

(18:41) **Ducker** : wait, there’s no proof to this

(18:41) **Ducker** : this all sounds like bullshit

(18:42) **Jemilla Anderson** : Molag sent me pictures of that scene in her copy of the correct script hold up

(18:43) **Jemilla Anderson** sent **IMG_8678** , **IMG_8679** , **IMG_8680** and **IMG_8681** to the group

(18:44) **Shwoopsie** : welp

(18:44) **Ducker** : fuck

(18:44) **Tiblyn James** : So my part in that scene isn’t special?

(18:45) **Jemilla Anderson** : Oh Tiblyn,

(18:45) **Jemilla Anderson** : No.

(18:46) **Jemilla Anderson** : But no-one’s is!

(18:47) **Jemilla Anderson** : haha

(18:47) **Jemilla Anderson** : Nevermind

(18:48) **Jemilla Anderson** : look on the bright side Ducker, you don’t have to bring that duck prop with you every day

(18:48) **Ducker** : you can’t stop me

(18:49) **Jemilla Anderson** : So does everyone understand the changes to the script?

(18:49) **Shwoopsie** : yea

(18:49) **Emberly Garretson** : Yep 

(18:50) **Tiblyn James** : I feel like everything in the version of the script we were given was a lie

(18:50) **Smelly-Balls** : yeah it’s like, do my balls even smell???

(18:50) **Emberly Garretson** : yes oh my god

(18:50) **Jemilla Anderson** : Yes

(18:50) **Tiblyn James** : so bad

(18:51) J **emilla Anderson** : Chorn, were you reading these?

(18:51) **Chorn Burnett** : Chorn

(18:51) **Jemilla Anderson** : Cool

(18:53) **Jemilla Anderson** : Ah shit, I forgot to add Zazzalil and Keeri

(18:53) **Jemilla Anderson** : Wait I can see them at Maccas I’ll tell them there

(18:53) **Jemilla Anderson** : See ya!

 

* * *

 

“Hey Jemilla.” Zazzalil smiled as Jemilla slid into the booth where her and Keeri were eating. “I just heard you asking youself what you were gonna do and well, have I got an idea for you.” Zazzalil punctuated each word with a small slam on the table, almost knocking her cup over.

“Plus, I just got a text from Ducker saying “Fuck a duck”, but I’m not judging. We’ve all thought about once or twice.” Keeri grinned as she munched on some fries and ignored the look of confusion Jemilla sent her.”

“Yeah, well about that,” Jemilla started, before she noticed the sheets of paper spread out on the table. “Wait, what are you two actually doing?”

“History essay.” Keeri sifted through the papers, adding a small scribble in pen on each corner.

“In a Macdonalds?” Jemilla frowned.

“Keeri’s parents weren’t home yet, she forgot her house key and I couldn’t be fucked getting on the train to mine cause I’m staying at Keeri’s tonight anyway.” Zazzalil shrugged, then slid an arm around Jemilla’s shoulders. “But anyway, regarding the play-”

“Zazzalil, please, none of your ideas, not now.” Jemilla cut her off.

“Just hear me out!” Zazzalil insisted. “Look, we have to forrage around the costume cupboard to look for what we could wear for the play, like a bunch of squirrels, but we never find what we want. But let’s face it, we’re never gonna find what we want in there. The drama department has never put on this play before. Soooo, I was thinking that maybe, we could just ask the fabric tech students to make us something? Well, I haven’t figured out how to ask them to actually make it for us but still, pretty good idea right?” Zazzalil looked up, waiting for a response.

Jemilla sighed. “Okay, that will never work. My friend does it and apparently they have an internal coming up. They won’t have the time for us.”

Zazzalil removed her arm from Jemilla’s shoulders and hung her head, defeated. Keeri shrugged and started dipping fries into her frozen coke.

“Gross.” Jemilla grimaced. “Look, Zazzalil, you don’t need to worry about what we’ll wear right now. Essays are the easiest things, you just start with the topic sentences-

“I know.” Zazzalil cut her off.

“-write the paragraphs-”

“I’ve done it so many times.”

“-then just write an introduction and conclusion, then you’re done.” Jemilla finished.

“It’s a little bit harder than that.” Zazzalil scoffed.

“It’s harder.” Keeri agreed.

“Whatever.” Jemilla smiled. “Just write your essay Zazzalil. You’re the best!” Jemilla leaned over and kissed Zazzalil’s cheek. She immediately tensed and a dark flush spread through her face. “I mean, uh, nevermind.” She stuttered and slung her backpack over one shoulder and quickly walked off, leaving a very confused Zazzalil in her wake.

“Just write your essay.” Zazzalil mocked Jemilla’s voice and scoffed.

Keeri rolled her eyes. “She doesn’t get it.”

“I mean, shit, costumes is gonna be a problem sooner or later. Why not just bug the fabric tech department now?” Zazzalil sighed and slumped back into her chair. “But nooo, we gotta do what she says ‘cause she’s the leader. What if she’s just holding us back from actually doing shit? What if there’s more that we could be doing? She just wants to play it safe.” Zazzalil grumbled and flicked her eyes to the TV where the local news was playing.

“Hurricane Snarl.” Keeri read off the screen. “They really are running out of names. Maybe they’ll cancel school?”

“Closing school for a hurricane in Auckland?” Zazzalil snorted. “Honestly, the worst it could do is knock over a couple of lawn chairs.”

Keeri shrugged. “I can dream.”

“Jemilla’s probably gonna make us make our costumes in the end and I cannot, for the life of me, be fucked doing that.” Zazzalil moaned and dragged her hands over her face. “If only we were doing an easy play, with costumes we actually have. Like, I dunno, The Pickle King or Fire or something.”

“Didn’t the year 10s do a couple of scenes from  _Flint and Steel_ a few years back?” Keeri added, piling their, now finished, dinner on the tray.

Realisation dawned on Zazzalil’s face. “Oh my god. Keeri that’s it!” Zazzalil lept up and leaned over the table to pull a bewildered Keeri into a kiss. “Shit, we’ve got the costumes, we’ve got enough people for it, it’s perfect!” She sweeped up the papers and stuffed them into her bag, grinning excitedly.

“Jemilla won’t like it.”

“Fuck Jemilla. I’m doing this.”


	3. Just a Taste

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while to get out, I had a history internal and then I got writers block and starting a whole new damn fanfic in the middle of writing this.
> 
> The story that Shwoopsie is telling at the start is actually something that happened to me when I walked out of a Maccas and a old woman turned around, complimented my ginger hair, said I should have kept it long, “unless you want to look like a boy, do you feel like a boy?”, then asked if I was gay, and it was okay if I was, “I know about these things, I’m a nurse” and kissed me on the cheek and left it was so fucking weird.
> 
> Wagging: NZ and Aussie slang for skipping class

“Then, I shit you not,” Shwoopsie wheezed with laughter, bracing herself against Smelly-Balls, who was also losing it, “This lady turns me around by the shoulder, looks her dead in the eyes and says, ‘Hey now, it’s okay if you’re gay, I should know about these things, I’m a nurse’. And then she just fucking kisses me on the cheek and leaves!”

Tiblyn snorted into her drink and dissolved into a fit of coughing that only got worse when Chorn slapped her on the back. “What the fuck?” The five of them are sprawled out in the senior common room, Shwoopsie and Smelly-Balls rocking on the plastic chairs as Tiblyn and Emberly lay on the floor, Chorn picking at the carpet.

“Right?” Shwoopsie grinned. “And all this time Smelly-Balls was doing jack shit but laughing. It was kinda terrifying. I almost ran into her again on the way back to school.”

“That’s what you get for wagging off during study period.” Emberly smiled and tsk-ed, wiping her glasses on the corner of her school cardigan. 

“I’ve finished internals for the term I’ll be fine.” Shwoopsie shrugged and swayed back on her chair, almost falling off in fright when her phone buzzed. “Oh, my Dad’s nearby, anyone want a lift?” Smelly-Balls responded with a fist pump and Chorn grunted in confirmation. “Tiblyn? Emberly?”

Tiblyn shook her head, her braids falling loose from the tie. “Nah I’m good, I’m taking the train home.”

“I’ve got tutoring,” Emberly added. 

“Okay cool. Well, see ya guys.” Shwoopsie swept up her bag and made for the door, Smelly-Balls and Chorn following close behind.

“Wait, uh, Chorn, do you have a second?” Tiblyn caught Chorn by the sleeve before they could leave the room. “That story that Shwoopsie told was pretty funny, huh?” She laughed nervously before clearing her throat in the silence that followed.

Chorn only stared, confused. 

Tiblyn took the hint. “Well, I’ll see ya tomorrow!” She gave a small smile before awkwardly patting Chorn on the arm and scurried back to where Emberly was rummaging through her bag.

“Oof, Tibs that was painful.” Emberly gave a sympathetic smile as she cracked open her lunchbox.

Tiblyn groaned and ran her hands down her face. “I know, I know. It’s just, shit I really love Chorn but they act like I don’t exist.” 

“Tiblyn, I’m not even sure if Chorn is into anyone.” Emberly bit into a piece of salad in her lunchbox and immediately started gagging, taking a huge swig of water from her bottle.

“Oh my gosh, how does that taste?”

“Ugh, so gross.” Emberly coughed and squinted at the salad. “I’m gonna use it in my dish anyway.”

“Mmkay.” Tiblyn leaned back to sprawl across the table, sighing deeply. “And then there’s Smelly-Balls and he’s such a great guy.”

“Tiblyn look, I know you’ve got a big heart and all, and I really appreciate that about you, but sometimes I think you just gotta get your head outta the clouds and stop thinking so much about romance.” Emberly backed into the kitchen counter, reaching for the microwave but yelped in surprise as her hand met someone else’s.

“What the fuck?”

The guy turned around, dropping her hand. “Shit, I’m so sorry, shit, shit.”

“Hey man, you’re not a Year 13 are you?” Tiblyn sat up, frowning.

“No, well I-” He had long dark hair which he was anxiously pushing away from his face as he walked back towards the door. He was also far too tall, towering over where Emberly was standing, flustered.

“Then get the fuck out dude,” Tiblyn swore as she checked her watch and swept her stuff into her arms, hurrying to the door. “Emberly, I’m gonna miss my train but I’ll see you tomorrow right?”

“Yeah, uh, tomorrow,” Emberly called back absent-mindedly, pushing her glasses up her nose. The tall guy was almost out of the door by now and she inched along the bench to come up behind him. “Hey, did you wanna use the microwave?”

He looked relieved. “Yeah, if I can. The tuck shop microwaves are closed and I’m just really hungry.” He sighed, seemingly incredibly downtrodden from this small inconvenience and Emberly couldn’t help but send a sympathetic look.

“Well, maybe we don’t have to fight over it, y’know, we can just take turns?” Emberly gestured to the microwave.

They moved towards the counter at the same time, and both started apologising and beckoning the other to go first before he moved to open it. 

“So what's your-” Emberly started before she cried out in panic and rushed over to him. “Shit no, don’t put metal in the microwave!”

“What? Fuck!” He slammed his hand on the button and grabbed the spoon that was balancing on the Tupperware container. “Oh jeez, thank God you’re here otherwise I probably would have blown up the place.”

“Aw, don’t worry about it. Glad to know 5 years of food tech has actually taught me stuff.” She joked. “I’m Emberly, by the way.”

“Emb- emb-, what is it again?” He frowned.

“Emberly.”

“Em-bley!”

Emberly stared for a second and slowly nodded. “That’s fine. Uh, what was your name?”

“Grunt.”

“Grant?”

“Uh, yeah that’s fine!” He shrugged.

“Look, I’m sorry if Tiblyn was a bit mean before, Year 12s are always bugging us in the common room.” Emberly swung a chair around to sit by where Grunt was leaning against the counter.

“It’s fine, I would be annoyed too if I was a Year 13.” Grunt smiled and Emberly found herself smiling too as if it was contagious. “So, you said you do Food Tech?”

“Oh yeah, it’s super fun! Well, you have to write a lot sometimes but cooking is kinda my passion so it doesn’t matter.”

His eyes lit up. “That’s so cool! What are you guys doing right now?”

“Well, uh, I’m doing a group project with my friend Keeri to make our own entree for a formal dinner, I actually have some of it here with me.” She scurried to where her backpack sat and pull out her lunchbox, opening the lid to reveal small little savory pastries. “We were experimenting with these, do you want to try one?”

Grunt took a pastry and bit into it “It’s crazy good!” He spoke, with pastry still in his mouth, “You really do have a knack for this stuff!”

“Aw, really?” Emberly flushed, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Well, I’ve been baking and cooking for as long as I can remember. What subject are you taking?”

“Level 2 painting.” Grunt jumped a little as the microwave beeped and took out his food. “I gotta go now, but I could show you some of my stuff tomorrow in A3 if you’re free at lunch?”

“Tomorrow lunch sounds good, yeah!” Emberly grinned. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“That’s great!” Grunt beamed and took Emberly’s hand in his as if he was going for a handshake but decided against it, and there they stood, hand in hand until Grunt left with a wave.”

“Great…” Emberly repeated, absentmindedly, staring where he stood a minute ago, a smile still on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell I haven’t taken Food Tech since Year Nine and I honestly don’t know what the fuck they do, I asked like 5 friends at school and no-one knows.


	4. The Night Belongs to Snarl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep getting comments complimenting my characterisation but I hope you guys know that I honestly don’t know what the fuck I’m doing
> 
> Shoutout to Kiley and the rest of the LLAGC for always pushing me to get off my ass and start writing.
> 
> Flint and Steel ain’t a real play and please do ignore how much it sounds like that one Minecraft item.

“Well, now that we have sorted out the changes in the script, we can get back to work, right gang?” Jemilla smiled at the others who were sprawled in the corner of the drama room and who groaned in response. The wind was kicking up outside and all of them were huddled by the wall heater.

“I dunno Jemilla, I mean, what’s the point of doing this if Ducker’s not gonna have his stupid duck?” Shwoopsie waved a hand unenthusiastically at Ducker, who nodded intensely.

“Oh, come on, hard work is its own reward, right guys?” Jemilla helped a reluctant Shwoopsie to her feet and started dragging her towards the centre of the room.

“Hey, Jemilla!”

Jemilla had barely any time to react before a book started flying through the air and hit her squarely on the face. “OH FUCK, MY FUCKING FACE, WHAT THE FUCK?” 

The culprit, Zazzalil laughed and turned to hi-five Keeri. “Behold! I have inflicted great pain upon Jemilla with what, you may ask?” She picked up the book and proudly showed it off to the surprised group. “The play  _ Flint and Steel. _ ”

“Wait, what?” Jemilla, now recovered from the slight injury, took the book from Zazzalil’s hand and started flicking through the pages. “What’s this for?”

“Well, we’ve been having so many problems with our current play so I came up with a solution. Scrap the old one all together and do this new one. Uh, Keeri, back me up on this one.” Zazzalil snatched the book back and gestured over to Keeri.

“It’s a great idea!” Keeri nodded at Zazzalil and grinned lopsidedly.

Jemilla sighed deeply. “Keeri.”

“What?”

“What are you, fucking nuts?”

“Uh, no.”

“Do you two have any idea how much of a hassle this would be?” 

Zazzalil and Keeri burst into laughter. “Oh please, It is  _ not  _ gonna be a hassle.” Zazzalil scoffed. “It’s a  _ play.  _ How hard could just changing it be? I mean, come on guys?” She turned to the rest of the group who were somewhat agreeing and nodding with what she said.

“Oh no, not this again.” Jemilla started before Zazzalil shushed her, actually shushed her, her finger slightly missing Jemilla’s lips.

“No, no, no! It’s gonna work this time, I’ll prove it to you!” Zazzalil rushed over to the bags and started hurriedly putting her shoes on. “I’ll get enough scripts for everyone and we can do a read through.”

“And walk through the start of a  _ hurricane _ ? Zazzalil, you are making a huge mistake.” Jemilla tried to block her path to the door but was pushed aside.

“Oh yeah, does this look like a mistake?” Zazzalil exited through the door and immediately ran into a teacher. “Oh, uh, hi Mrs. Trunkell.”

One telling off for “Running into the hallway” and some other reason along the lines of “students staying after school should actually be rehearsing or doing work instead of hanging out” later and Zazzalil was led back into the classroom, looking absolutely defeated.

“Jeez, she’s a pretty scary teacher.” Emberly piped up as she and the others moved back to the heaters from where they were at the door, listening to Zazzalil getting practically yelled at.

“She’s a great teacher.” Keeri drawled.

“Come on you guys, she’s got a point and she’s not stupid, let’s get back to work.” Jemilla hurried them along away from the door but stuck a hand out to stop Zazzalil and turned to face her. “Not you. Apparently, you are stupid. This little thing got you into a lot of trouble.” Jemilla grabbed the book that Zazzalil was still holding, but immediately hissed and drew back as a paper cut welled on her finger.

Zazzalil laughed at that but her face immediately fell as Jemilla glared at her, suddenly serious.

“Guess what? Your new play is  _ banned.” _

“What?” Zazzalil’s voice dropped to a whisper.

“That’s right, I forbid  _ Flint and Steel _ forever! And, I forbid anymore of your bad ideas. They’re banned too!” Jemilla finally grabbed the book and stuffed it inside one of the cupboards around the edge of the room.

“I’m- I’m sorry.” Zazzalil fumbled for words, her eyes trained on the floor to hide tears welling up. “I just wanted to make life better.” 


	5. Into the Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait, I was on hiatus for mock exams and then I worked on my spies fic for a while
> 
> This is the chapter I realised I should add Zazzalil/Keeri in the tags cause they are very much in love, though this fic is not focused on it (and sorry if you came here later solely for that).
> 
> This is a damn long chapter by my slow ass writing standards so enjoy, it was also actually very fun to write.

“So uhhhh, has this happened to anybody else?” Shwoopsie lept up on one of the prop blocks to cheers from everyone gathered beneath her. Everyone was slacking off _again_ against Jemilla’s constant pleas and berating. It was a wonder how they got anything done in the first place.

Keeri’s attention was pulled away from Shwoopsie’s amateur stand-up show to a small sob coming from her right. She turned to see Zazzalil sitting bent in half with her curly hair splayed out as her forehead touched the ground, which was completely typical of her. Zazzalil didn’t face her problems, she instead tended to lie face down on the ground until the problem went away.

“Hey. Hey, Zazzalil. You doing okay?” Keeri asked, and received no response.

Keeri sighed and lay down next to her on her stomach. “I was worried you might feel pretty stupid cause, y’know, you looked pretty stupid. To put yourself out there like that, in front of everybody with your brand new invention and be like ‘look!’ and then to have it fail so miserably and be like ‘no!’”

That set Zazzalil off into more sobbing, her body shaking and Keeri sat up in a slight panic.

“Hey, hey it’s okay!” Keeri started rubbing Zazzalil’s back, in efforts to stop her from crying more. “Y’know, I was just thinking that we should just like quit inventing stuff all together y’know? It’s not so bad letting other people think for you, I’ve been doing it my whole life it’s awesome.”

Keeri smirked, staring blankly at one of the drama posters on the wall until the thought suddenly came to her.

“Hey, I got an idea. We could find someone to blindly follow together, it would be so fun!” She leant down to talk into Zazzalil’s ear. “Oh, I know, we could follow Jemilla! She’s smarter than us and-”

Zazzalil suddenly sat up, glare harsh though her eyes were puffy from crying. “Jemilla’s _not_ smarter than me.” She took a deep breath, eyes darting from side to side. “I’m not gonna let her run my life for one more second.”

Zazzalil walked to the cupboards, ransacking them and immediately returning with Flint and Steel clutched in her hands.

“Um, Zazz.” Keeri stood up and chased after her, stopping when she spotted the book. “Uhhh, Jemilla banned that thing forever.”

“Keeri,” Zazzalil stepped forward until she was inches away from Keeri, maintaining sharp eye contact. Keeri swallowed nervously but didn’t move.

“I can’t go on knowing that I missed out on something this big. I can’t do that to the rest of our group! No, no, _fuck_ the rest of our group.” She stepped again and they were impossibly close now. “ _I_ can’t stand one more afternoon doing a stupid play, in a stank ass room filled with stinky ass people!” Zazzalil punctuated the last word with a quick kiss to Keeri’s lips, leaving her smiling lopsidedly.

Zazzalil walked a few paces to the door but stopped and turned around, sheer determination on her face.

“There are so many copies of this play in the library Keeri, and I’m going to get them one way or another.” And with that, Zazzalil fled out of the drama classroom.

“Wait!” Keeri started to break into a run after her before a flash of lightning shortly followed by thunder illuminated the corridor, stopping her in her tracks.

“No-no-no-no, I’m not gonna lie,” Keeri was suddenly aware of Shwoopsie’s stand-up show again. “I was seriously like _Shwoopsie_.” She ended the joke with a flourish of her hands as if an imaginary _ba-dum tis_ of drums were playing. A few awkward laughs echoed around the room, followed by sounds of disappointment.

“Alright, yeah, well, tha-that-that was the funny part of the joke in case you wanted to laugh, uh _Shwoopsie_ ,” Shwoopsie repeated the joke again to even less of a positive reaction, though Jemilla did clap in pity.

“Uh, I do not mean to be rude cause I know you’re putting yourself out there, but that was _not_ funny.” Smelly-Balls grimaced, to nods of approval from the others.

“Humor was a gift from the duck.” Ducker moaned sadly from where he was curled up in a fetal position. He never really got over the loss of the duck prop and everyone guessed he never will.

“Y’know, maybe the joke was never funny,” Tiblyn added, to Shwoopsie’s dismay. “Maybe we were just told it was funny. And maybe Shwoopies been holding this joke up above her head for like a month now cause no one thought to tell her the truth!” Tiblyn had raised her hands above her head now, which Emberly promptly put down.

“Yeah, it’s like do my balls even smell?!” Smelly-Balls half yelled to immediate responses of “yes”, “oh my god, yes” and “you’re asking this _again_?” from everyone gathered.

“Okay, okay, come on guys, come on!” Jemilla stood up to console Shwoopsie, who was still looking shocked and downtrodden. “Hey, the joke is still kinda funny. Shwoopsie? Babe?”

Shwoopsie just shook her head and stalked off to join where most of the group was lying in despair.

Jemilla sighed deeply. “Listen, I know I made a lot of changes to the script, but we don’t have to question _everything_.”

“Jemilla, I have a question.” Keeri raised her hand but didn’t look directly at Jemilla.

“What?”

“Um, earlier today you banned a couple of things forever, and I was just wondering how long is forever?” Keeri asked.

“It’s un-ending-”

“Okay-”

“-always has been and always will be.”

“Okay, um, so, forever is still going on now then.” Keeri folded her arms, looking thoroughly distressed. “Are you sure forever didn’t end, like, a couple of minutes ago?”

Jemilla frowned, slowly walking over to Keeri. “Yeah, I’m pretty-”

_“Okay-”_

“-damn sure Keeri.”

“Cool, okay, forever.” Keeri kept herself turned away from Jemilla, who was now right next to her.

“Is this about Zazzalil?”

_“Uhhhh.”_

“What did she do this time?” Jemilla demanded, scanning the room as she looked for Zazzalil.

“Well, Jemilla it’s-”

Jemilla was panicking too now. “Keeri, where is _Zazzalil_?”

Keeri just pointed to the corridor with a frustrated cry, where thunder and lightning happened to light up at the exact moment. This thoroughly spooked the fuck out of the entire group, who screamed in response.

“What?!” Jemilla desperately grabbed Keeri’s arms, backing her away from the door. “She went _out_? At _night_? During a _hurricane_?!”

Keeri managed to get out a “Maybe?!” before another crash of thunder sounded, causing everyone in the room to scream again.

“But, if Zazzalil’s out there, the Hurricane could kill her!” Emberly whimpered from where she was clutching at Tiblyn.

“It’s Hurricane Snarl, it’s too late for Zazzalil, fuck her,” Ducker added before yet another bout of thunder and lightning crashed and they all screamed again.

“Okay! Okay!” Jemilla yelled above the screaming. “Everyone, calm down. Alright, most humans have a basic survival instinct that screams _don’t go out during a fucking storm_ , maybe that includes her.” She laughed weakly before turning to the door and yelling. “ _Goddammit, Zazzalil!_ Okay, I have to go get her. I can’t promise I’ll make it out alive. Will somebody please help me?” She started desperately sobbing.

“Jemilla, I’m just a cronie, and in Zazzalil’s absence, I’m your cronie so I’ll follow you wherever!” Keeri walked to Jemilla, where she got a grateful hug.

“I will too!” Emberly rushed over as well.

“Yeah, I’ll go, I’ve got nothing else to live for so I might as well.” A still very dismayed looking Shwoopsie joined the three, taking off her school tie and chucking it over on her bag.

“Okay, thank you so much!” Jemilla beckoned her over. “Anybody else coming?”

“I will!” Smelly-Balls strode confidently over.

“Oh, Smelly-Balls thank you, that is so brave of you.”

“Hell yeah!” He pumped his fist.

“Alright!” Jemilla addressed the remaining three, who were steadily avoiding eye contact with Jemilla. Ducker was even crouching behind Tiblyn in efforts to avoid responsibility. “Who will watch over the rest of the tribe when we’re gone?”

“I will.” Smelly-Balls strode back to the other side of the room.

Jemilla paused. “Smelly-Balls. You can’t do both.”

“Ha ha! It would be an _honour_ , to do both!” Smelly-Balls laughed.

“Okay, this isn’t about your honour-”

“Jemilla!” Smelly-Balls yelled, raising his hand. “We’re a _family_.” He finished smugly, crossing his arms.

“Alright, y’know what? Fuck it, we’re _all_ going, come on guys!”

 

* * *

 

Zazzalil flung open the door of the drama department and immediately got pushed back by the sheer force of the wind outside. The rain was falling thick and fast, causing ankle-deep water to rush through the concrete of the courtyard.

Zazzalil has had many stupid ideas throughout her lifetime, but this was probably by far the dumbest, just barely surpassing when she tried to play basketball with mini trampolines and broke her leg.

The only thing that motivated her to keep going at this point was pure spite directed at Jemilla. God, she just pissed her off constantly, always underestimating Zazzalil and ignoring her- frankly brilliant- plans and ideas.

The sad thing was that Zazzalil wasn’t even surprised. Jemilla always did this, shuts down other people's ideas at the slightest chance of them being unsafe. She had no clue how much it actually hurt people. Yeah, Zazzalil was reckless as hell, but that has benefits that Jemilla can’t understand.

Zazzalil had forgotten a raincoat or an umbrella but couldn’t be fucked going back, so she stepped into the storm. She ran face on into the wind, getting incredibly soaked, her arm raised in front of her face in a failing attempt to stop the rain from getting in her eyes.

She wasn’t afraid of this, she wasn’t afraid of anything anymore, not even this stupid fucking storm. No-one had stood up to Jemilla like this before, no-one has been so fucking brave before to do it before Zazzalil. There was no turning back. She had to prove that she was right.

She kept running and didn’t even stop as a flash of lightning and thunder lit up the sky. Jemilla was the one who was afraid of storms, not her.

Zazzalil rounded the corner of the science block and continued running until she wrenched open the door of the library and stood, shivering in the library lobby. She was completely drenched, water dripping off her, which earnt her very disapproving looks from the librarians on duty. Zazzalil shrugged them off and entered, heading straight towards the theatre section of the library. Sure enough, as she predicted, she found enough copies of _Flint and Steel_ to cover the entire group.

She checked out the books, getting even dirtier looks as her hands were still wet and wiping them on her also wet uniform didn’t help. She bundled all the books up in plastic bags so they would get ruined and rushed out of the library, where she ran straight into a very wet, very angry and quite terrified Jemilla and the rest of the group.

“Zazzalil, what the _fuck_?”


	6. The Night Belongs to Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My brain writing this at 1pm: Yeah changing babies to chickens in the shwoopsie joke totally makes sense at all, its completely still not weird in a modern context.
> 
> Honestly just ignore how weird it is cause it's far too funny of a joke for me to leave out.
> 
> Can you tell that it's nearly impossible to translate the bits where the rest of the group says something in chorus into writing.

It was by some goddamn miracle that everyone was able to slip past the teachers in the hallways, leaving trails of water on the carpet until they all lay out, shivering on the drama room floor. They were trying to use their jumpers and paper towels to dry themselves off, which of course did not help at all.

Jemilla had been so obviously silently fuming with anger and frustration the entire trip back to the classrooms. The only thing apparently stopping her from snapping on Zazzalil outside the library right then and there was her huge fear of storms.

“Hey, Zazzy, you really did it!” Keeri grinned widely, once she had stopped shivering from the cold.

“Yeah wow, you really did brave a hurricane, all for that- uh, I don’t even know what.” Shwoopsie playfully jostled Zazzalil’s arm.

“Yeah, I did do it, didn’t it?” Zazzalil stopped wringing her hair out with the jumper and stood up, clutching the book. “Behold! My latest idea, umm it's-uh, _Flint and Steel_!”

The others gathered around Zazzalil listened with rapt attention and clapped their approval, some started flicking through the copies that Zazzalil had handed out.

“Oh, come on.” Jemilla scoffed, looking positively miserable with her once curly hair dripping and plastered to her face. “Like you expect us to believe that it’s actually a good idea? This is the person who nearly got us killed, or worse, in deep trouble with the teachers multiple times in one day! She is dangerous, and so is that. So put it _down_.”

Zazzalil stared at the book in her hands then back at Jemilla, a determined expression on her face. “No.”

Jemilla gaped in disbelief. “What?”

“I said, _no!_ ” Zazzalil let out a frustrated noise and started pacing the room. “Y’know, Jemilla? I used to look up to you. Yeah, I thought, man, she’s got great clothes, she’s got great hair, man, she’s got it together, she’s the leader of our group! I wanted everything you had, and for you to have nothing.”

Jemilla frowned. “So didn’t look up to me, you envied me?”

“Yeah, that’s right. But not anymore.” Zazzalil started gesturing wildly with the book. “No, because now I see what you're really like! You ban everything you can’t control, and do you know why? Um, it’s because you’re a-a scared, little _chicken_. And you know what we do to chickens, uh-oh, we eat them."

The group fell into silence, most of them darting their eyes between Jemilla and Zazzalil.

Shwoopsie looked incredibly deep in thought until she spoke up. “Let’s eat Jemilla."

_“What the fuck Shwoopsie-“_

“Let’s eat Jemilla!” Keeri and Emberly added to the chant.

“Woah, woah, woah, guys, no.” Zazzalil started.

“Let’s eat Jemilla!” Everyone was chanting it now.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Jemilla looked ready to bolt out the door.

“Thank you so much, thank you for your support, I meant that figuratively.” Zazzalil raised her voice above the chant, successfully stopping it.

“Oh, yeah, I know, of course, uh, _Shwoopsie_!” Shwoopsie sheepishly corrected her tie.

Zazzalil shook her head and turned back to Jemilla. “Y’know what I think? I think this play is awesome, and I found it, and why shouldn’t we have it? We’re the best!”

The group called out “yeah!” in a chorus, a couple pumping their fists.

“Oh, but Jemilla,” Zazzalil inhaled sharply, bringing her hand to her face. “Jemilla doesn’t think we’re the best no, no. Jemilla wants us to be cold, and wet and bored out of our minds forever! Is that what you want?”

“No way, fuck her!” The group chorused.

“Hey, I got an idea.” Keeri stepped forward. “Maybe Zazzalil could be our new leader!”

“Oh yeah, she did brave the hurricane!” Tiblyn added excitedly as the others nodded along.

Jemilla looked shocked. “New leader? Hold on-“

“That’s a great idea.” Zazzalil cut her off. “See Jemilla how I’m encouraging other people’s ideas?”

“It’s great.” Keeri smiled.

Jemilla silently seethed, clenching her fists at her side. “Fine!” Fine. Y’know what? I have an awesome idea of my _own_. If you guys want _Zazzalil_ as your new leader.” She laughed, before suddenly looking serious again. “Then fine. I’m outta here!” She ended by storming her way towards the door.

The group simultaneously shrugged. “Okay.”

Jemilla scoffed, and turned back around, walking back and pointing at the book. “And, you can keep that play. In my opinion, it’s too _extra_.”

Nobody looked bothered by this. “Okay.”

“And,” Jemilla pivoted herself around from where she was walking towards the door for the third time. “There is a reason that Flint and Steel hadn't been assigned as a play for years and I bet it’s a really good reason. That play is going to be the end of you. You are all going to crash and _burn_!” She ended confidently, gesturing wildly.

_“Okay!”_ Everyone finished, exasperated.

Jemilla stood, shocked for a slight moment before sobs started to wrack her body and she fled the room.

No-one seemed to notice as they were too transfixed on the book in Zazzalil’s hands.

“So, Zazzalil, what’s this play about?” Emberly leaned closer and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

“It’s about a spirit.” Ducker had gotten his pencil out and had messily circled around the word ‘spirit’ on one of the pages.

“Nah, it’s about a tiny sun.” Shwoopsie tried to read over Zazzalil’s shoulders.

“I’m here to help!” Smelly-Balls burst through the doorway from wherever he was hiding while everyone else was going after Zazzalil. “Wait, what is that, a man?”

“No, no.” Zazzalil shook her head. “It’s about something different, I’m trying to remember, it’s um-“

Chorn stood up, staring intensely. “Fire.”

Tiblyn gasped. “Um, Chorn said something other than Chorn.”

“Fire, fire, fire!” Chorn repeated, getting more excited.

“Yes, yes!” Zazzalil snapped her fingers as if she was the one who remembered it. “That’s what it was! Fire!”

“That’s so awesome.” Emberly grinned widely.

“And you know what?” Zazzalil leaped up onto the block that Shwoopsie was previously standing on. “We’re not going back to that stupid play from before. No, for too long we have been doing that long, boring, _stinky ass_ play and why? Because of Jemilla! But you know what? Fuck her! Without her, there is no fucking way this could end in a mess!"


	7. Climate Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so the first portion of this chapter is a flashback to 10 years ago, where they’re ⅞ (the fic is set in 2017 and everyone is 17/18). The second portion after the line is back during the present timeline.
> 
> Shoutout to Kiley (the resident lesbian/ enabler) for her help with this.
> 
> Translating the Chorn fire joke into modern times (which it was orignally referencing in the first place, very meta) makes Zazzalil seem like so much more of an asshole but I’m just following the script.

_**8th March 2007** _

_“Hey, psst!”_ A hushed whisper came from somewhere over Jemilla’s shoulder.

Jemilla spun and frowned when she was only greeted by another Library shelf. “What?” She whispered back.

“Hey!” The voice was now directly behind Jemilla, which startled her and she nearly lost her grip on the books in her arms.

Jemilla turned to see a short curly haired kid who she vaguely remembered from a dance performance at assembly frantically ducking behind the shelf. “Hide me.” She grinned toothily.

“What?” Jemilla stared, still trying to balance the books.

“We’re playing go home stay home, Keeri’s it.” The girl ducked behind Jemilla, squatting down to hide behind her legs.

“Why would you do this in a-” Jemilla was cut off by the girl shushing her again. She had stood up and flattened herself against Jemilla’s back, which would have been incredibly obvious if she Jemilla wasn’t wearing a puffer jacket.

Moments later, a tall blonde girl with pigtails came skidding around the corner. Jemilla opened her mouth to tell her off for running but the blonde girl beat her to it. “Hey, hey, have you seen a girl like this high go past?” She indicated at her eye level with her hand.

“Uhh,” Jemilla started before the girl behind her sharply jabbed her with her elbow. “No, no I haven’t.”

“Oh okay.” The blonde frowned and ran off again.

“Sweet, thanks!” The girl behind Jemilla jumped out and grinned widely. Her hair was cut into a bob with a fringe but it was so curly that it just framed around her forehead instead, completely defeating the purpose of a fringe.

“It’s fine, but don’t play games in the library again.” Jemilla started shelving the books again.

“Why are you even doing jobs in the library, that’s for year 6’s?” The girl trailed after Jemilla, trailing her hands across the books and picking at the tack on the signs.

Jemilla shrugged. “Ms Abercrombie let me.”

“What, did you really suck up to her that much?” The girl snorted.

Jemilla took a moment before she responded. They’d only spoken for less than a couple minutes but already the girl had given her the impression that she was the human version of a headache. “No, I just asked and she let me. Look, I’m trying to do stuff here, so can you take your game outside, or just anywhere else than here?”

“Yeah sure, I’ll leave to be the teacher’s pet by yourself.” The girl jokingly jabbed Jemilla in the side and started to walk off. “See you nowhere then.”

“Wait,” Jemilla called out. “What was your name again?”

The girl kept walking, but shouted over her shoulder. “Zazzalil!”

 

* * *

 

A warm breeze from the open window blew around the art room where Zazzalil and Chorn were working on the set during lunchtime. Hurricane Snarl had moved west weeks ago, bringing back the heat even though it was only the beginning of spring.

If Jemilla were with them right then, she would surely make the point that it was all the fault of Climate Change, and would go on a huge rant about carbon footprints. But she wasn’t. Zazzalil had barely seen her for weeks now, as she shared no classes with her. Even when she did see her, Jemilla steadily avoided eye contact and gave no acknowledgement of Zazzalil’s presence, which Zazzalil did too.

Zazzalil smiled and sighed, standing back to admire the portion of the set she just painted. “Ah, yes. Look at it Chorn. Look at what I’ve just created. Y’know, we left behind that old stinky set and built a new, stinky set, yes. And Chorn, I believe that if we come in during more lunchtimes we can finish these in at least a week. That is something to strive for-”

Zazzalil cut herself off as she turned to Chorn and saw that she was only staring at her phone and ignoring what she was saying. “Chorn are you even listening to me?”

“Chorn.” Chorn replied, clearly bored.

Zazzalil scoffed, her hand on her hip. “Ha, no you’re not, you’re just staring at your phone, that’s rude to do when I’m talking to you.”

Chorn didn’t respond again and Zazzalil sighed, walking up to wrestle with the phone in Chorn’s hands. “Okay, Gimme.”

“Chorn, Chorn, you fucking _asshole_!” Chorn grappled with Zazzalil but lost her grip on her phone.

“ _No_ , no, beat it! Go engage with the world, play outside or something!” Zazzalil shooed away a very pissed Chorn away and put her phone down. “Jeez, whatever happened to simple human connection.” She scoffed, before immediately picking up her own phone as she got a text. “Woah, would you look at that.”

Keeri frowned as she walked into the room and Chorn immediately stalked off, but smiled and waved at Zazzalil. “Hey Zazz!”

Zazzalil didn’t look up. “Uh-huh.”

“ _Zazz?”_ Keeri repeated, waving her hand in front of Zazzalil’s face.

“Hmm?” Zazzalil finally looked up and smiled. “Oh hey Keeri, what’s up?”

“Well,” Keeri shrugged, throwing her hands in the air. “I just saw you during dance practice last period, and I thought that, y’know, the rib isolation could be sharper and you could really lock that movement but that’s just a note I had.” She demonstrated the rib isolation, finishing with an awkward fold of her arms.

“Um, anyway, um.” Keeri continued, starting to smile. “It just reminded me of when me and you used to dance together in the competition group earlier this year, yknow? We’d go on dates to get lunch after practice, and you’d tell me what places are good to get food in the city or not, that was really fun!” She trailed off at the end, staring at a point outside the window.

Zazzalil smiled at her, putting her phone down. “Yeah, well, Keeri, we won’t have to wake up at 6am for practice for at least a couple more months now, thank God. But you’re still doing dance remember? You’re the official choreographer for our play!”

“Uh, yeah, um about that,” Keeri grimaced. “I don’t really think I can do my job anymore? First of all it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. But besides that, I can’t find any speakers.”

“What,” Zazzalil laughed. “What do you mean you can’t find any? There’s literally at least a couple in every drama classroom, for fucks sake.”

“Yeah, I know, I mean, there should be a lot of them, and I know where they’re kept but it’s just when I go there, they’re not there anymore.” Keeri leaned in, taking her voice down to a whisper. “I think we might have broke them all.”

“What, broke them all? No way.” Zazzalil brushed her off with a hand.

“I don’t know, we sure broke a lot. And we didn’t even try to fix them. Most of them fell to pieces when someone stood on them and we threw them out, what if a teacher finds them?” Keeri looked increasingly panicked, and seemed to be really letting everything out as she started ranting about completely unrelated topics. “Also, the insane amount of global waste is starting to kill the bees, and all the woodland animals and-“

“Okay, alright, alright, stop!” Zazzalil cut Keeri off and sighed. “Okay, first of all, no-one is forcing you to use speakers okay? Just put your phone in a tin or something. And um, I mean, I don’t even know why you started talking about it in the first place but _fuck bees_ , I mean, they can all die, amiright?” Zazzalil laughed then dropped off as Keeri glared at her. “And um, as for breaking _all_ the speakers in the department, that’s just a small problem. I’m sure you can find more. Why not ask Ms Trunkell or something?”

Keeri huffed and briskly walked over to Zazzalil to be inches away from her face. “She actually likes me. I don’t want to go over and tell her that we broke all the speakers in the department! No shit.”

“Okay, well, just don’t use music!” Zazzalil shook her head and put distance between her and Keeri. “I don’t know, what do you want me to do?”

“Well, if Jemilla were here she would do something about all the broken and terrible stuff, like, I don’t know, stop it?”

“You know what?” Zazzalil rushed over, standing on the balls of her feet in front of Keeri’s face, trying to make herself seem taller. “I don’t want to hear about what Jemilla will do, okay? Look at how much happier everyone-“ Zazzalil gestured to outside the classroom, where she could see some of the other’s having their lunch but was cut off by Keeri turning away with a huff.

Zazzalil closed her eyes and sighed. She hated fighting with Keeri because of how close they are- or were. “Keeri _look_ at them.”

“No, I won’t.” Keeri kept her eyes fixed on the ground and turned completely away from Zazzalil.

“Look at- alright. I’ll just tell you they’re much happier with me in charge.” Zazzalil paced to the other side of the room. “Y’know what? I forbid feeling nostalgic for Jemilla forever. It’s _banned.”_ The last word came out angrier and louder than Zazzalil expected and she was taken aback. “It’s banned baby.” She tried again, in a cooler tone but she still knew there was anger behind her words, and she rolled her eyes at herself.

“Look,” Zazzalil walked over to Keeri and took her hand, slinging the other arm around the other girl’s shoulder. “She’s gone. She’s not part of our group anymore, okay? We’re never going to see her again.”

“I’m just worried you’re turning into a monster.” Keeri sighed as they walked out of the art classroom, hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell how much I reworked it just so I can add the bee joke in, even though it makes zero sense.
> 
> It is possible that I might be going on a hiatus on both of my fics for a while as I'm heading into exam season, though knowing me I'll probably procrastinate by writing.


	8. Jemilla's Lament

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it has come to my attention that I have been spelling Schwoopsie wrong. For 7 entire chapters. I’m going to continue to spell it here as Shwoopsie just for the sake of the fic, (read: i can’t be bothered going back and changing it) but I know what it actually is now.

Maybe this is what Jemilla deserved.

Some twist of fate led to Jemilla sitting alone in a corner in the library, without her friends, without a place in the play. It seemed that it was all her fault, otherwise, she wouldn’t be there. If she had just _listened_ to the others and considered their ideas they wouldn’t blank her in the hallway and move to different desks in classes they shared with Jemilla. She knew being controlling was one of her problems that she had to work on, but she had no idea it would lead to _this_.

Then there was fucking _Zazzalil_. She had always been testing Jemilla’s patience for years now, but there was never anything as extreme as what happened. _Surely_ Zazzalil must have known how Jemilla would have reacted to it, how she had always reacted to Zazz doing stupid shit to get a rise out of the other girl. She knew that Zazzalil did it fully on purpose, knew of how protective Jemilla was of her close friends and purposely doing something incredibly reckless.It was almost a decade of built up annoyance between the two that exploded in one argument. Zazzalil had some fucking nerve and she knew it.

But Jemilla was _right_ the whole time. The storm _was_ dangerous and Zazzalil was just lucky to come out without injuries. Maybe she was holding the whole group back to a better play, but the danger in that particular afternoon outweighed Zazzalil’s goal, which everyone failed to see.

Of course, Jemilla was wrong this time. She knew it, she got it. If only the group knew that from Jemilla’s point of view she did it all for Zazzalil.

The barely hidden truth was that Jemila had fallen for Zazzalil years ago, and she fell for her _hard_. Everything that the other girl did only made it worse, from her small spins and large grins when she had a new idea, to her absolute kicked puppy face when the slightest thing goes wrong. Jemilla was incredibly overprotective of her, which only led to trouble, but she couldn’t bear anything bad happening to her. Zazzalil could never know, and Jemilla didn’t think she was observant enough to know in the first place, despite how obvious she was about it.

Through all this, without Zazzalil, without the others, Jemilla was alone. Maybe she never really never belonged with that friendship group with the first place, as they looked so much happier now that she was no longer in charge. Even if Jemilla did what the other girl braved that evening, nothing would change. She missed her friends, she missed the fun they all had together and goddammit, she missed _Zazzalil_ too.

Someone tapped on Jemilla’s shoulder and she almost slammed her elbow into the wall in surprise as she was jolted out of her thoughts. She tried to gather herself together as best as she could and turned to see the person squatting next to where she was sitting against the wall behind a shelf.

“Uh, are you okay?” He asked, frowning. Behind her was a tall guy, short brown hair and looking very concerned. Jemilla recognised him from her music class a few years ago, she didn’t remember his name though. Her mind in this state was only tossing up anything but what it possibly could be. Clive? Clint? Clank?

“Yeah, uh-huh I’m fine.” Jemilla reopened her laptop on her lap, despite how obvious it was that she hadn’t been doing any work previously.

A beat passed. “You’re crying in the library.” He stood up, somewhat more confident than before and just extended his hand. Whether it was to help Jemilla up or just for her to take, she didn’t know, it was more of an unspoken question hanging between them.

Jemilla took his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the veeery first time I've ever had enough motivation to actually fulfil an idea for a fic, so I hope it's alright.
> 
> Come chat!  
> [My Tumblr](https://gingersnapkid.tumblr.com)  
> [My Twitter](https://twitter.com/alceaon)


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